1. Filed of the Disclosure
The features described herein relate to recording apparatuses for forming images on recording media, and wiping devices for wiping contaminants on ejection surfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known ink jet printer includes an ink jet head, a frame moving mechanism for vertically moving the ink jet head, a maintenance unit for the ink jet head, and a horizontal movement mechanism for horizontally moving the maintenance unit. In this ink jet printer, the maintenance unit is horizontally moved to a position opposing the ink jet head after the ink jet head has been raised from a printing position to a head maintenance position. Then, after purge, the ink jet head is lowered so as to bring a wiper and an ejection surface of the ink jet head into contact with each other and wipe the ejection surface while the maintenance unit is horizontally moved toward a retracting position. Thus, the ink jet head may be recovered from an ejection failure.
However, in the ink jet printer described above, when the maintenance unit is horizontally moved to a position opposing the ink jet head, the ink jet head needs to be raised to the head maintenance position to avoid contact between the wiper and the ejection surface. Therefore, the ink jet printer has a space allowing vertical movement of the head, which increases the size of the printer in the height direction. Furthermore, not only a mechanism for horizontally moving the wiper, but also a mechanism for vertically moving the head, which uses another driving source, is required. Consequently, the number of components constituting these mechanisms is increased, further increasing the size of the printer and increasing the manufacturing costs due to increased component count.